Vote 'no' on Prop A

Southeast Missouri is unique in that a person can travel in a 100-hundred-mile radius and visit four neighboring states. In my 40-plus years in the construction industry, I have worked as a carpenter, estimator, and project manager in Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee and my home state of Missouri.

Arkansas has been a "Right-to-Work" state since 1944, and Tennessee became one in 1947. Wages in Missouri's construction industry have been considerably higher than the wages in both of these states for many years. If the "Right-to-Work" proponents are telling the truth, then both of these states should have higher wages, better benefits and more jobs than Missouri. This is not true of the past or the present.

In a vote taken in January of 2017, Kentucky's Republican Legislature added their state to the list of "Right-to-Work" states, and repealed all prevailing wages. Since that time, friends of mine who work as tradesmen (union and non-union) and contractors (union and non-union) are being negatively affected by this legislative action. Job opportunities have actually decreased.

Wages, across the board, will be lower if our state becomes a "Right-to-Work" state. Missouri will not be the exception. The question each person must ask themselves in deciding how to vote on this issue is:

Do I trust and support the men and women in this state who work, raise their families, support schools and businesses, attend churches in this state? Or do I trust politicians whose main concern is to placate CEOs and out-of-state billionaires whose incomes will go up even more if Missouri is made a "Right-to-Work" state?

On Aug. 7, vote for the working people of Missouri. Vote NO on Prop A.

Ed Dooley, Chaffee, Missouri